Worst Poetry In Great Britain/Drives

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Addiction ‹
Something about exploration and danger satisfies a deeply felt physical need. You become
restless without the prickling of goosebumps and a pumping heart.
Especially appropriate for: Hobo. Military, Pilot, Private Investigator.
Aesthete Œ
You maintain an interest in the decadent works of the new generation. You revel in poetry that
plumbs the depths of the human soul, paintings depicting the weird as well as the beautiful. One
day you will show the world your own verse, and crack open your own doors of perception. But
first you must write some verse, yes? And to do that, you must look into shadowed corners, where
others dare not glimpse.
Especially appropriate for: Alienist, Artist, Author, Dilettante.
Ambition 
Dyer better kick himself for having tried to stop my westward trip. First the world’s greatest mountains, and
then this. If this last isn’t the high spot of the expedition, I don’t know what is. We’re made scientifically.
- At the Mountains of Madness
Your job is a low rung on the ladder of success, and you’re ready to start climbing. You
strive not out of a sense of Duty, for a Mentor, or in contrast to a Rival, but for more personal
reasons. A comfortable salary, a better social circle, public recognition: any of these rewards
could be worth outlasting the drudgery of your current position. Or you may want to prove your
worth — many would be happy just to be employed, but you know you could do more with more.
Especially appropriate for: Doctor, Journalist, Nurse, Scientist.
Examples: Percy Lake in At the Mountains of Madness, Herbert West, Sir Arthur Jermyn.
Challenge Ž
Don’t dare try really tall peaks in present weather, but shall later. Frightful work climbing, and hard going
at this altitude, but worth it.
- At the Mountains of Madness
Why are there soaring mountains, trackless deserts, and sweltering jungles? For intrepid men
to best them! Every year, the world gets smaller, and there are fewer expeditions to carve up
what’s left. This is more than the lure of Adventure; a chance to prove your worth, and be
remembered on a map or with others who dared great things.
Especially appropriate for: Archaeologist, Dilettante, Military, Pilot.
Champion of Order Œ
History comprises an eternal struggle between chaos and order. As anarchy embroils Europe,
you remain vigilant to its symptoms here, in the United States. The blood you and others shed in
the Great War must not have been shed in vain. Wherever disorder looms, you will be there to
tamp it down.
Especially appropriate for: Clergy, Military, Police Detective.
Destiny Ž
Was, indeed, Fate preserving my reason only to draw me irresistibly to an end more horrible and unthinkable
than any man has dreamed of?
- The Temple
You have been put on this earth for a definite reason. What little you do know may have been
uttered by a fortune-teller or revealed at a relative’s deathbed. Though the details are sketchy,
there are momentous times ahead during which you will play a decisive role. Everything you
endure turns up unavoidable clues that the conclusion may be just around the corner.
Especially appropriate for: any occupation.
Examples: The narrator of The Fungi from Yuggoth; in Lovecraft’s horror, fate is more often
grimly ironic, like the dead scientists in At the Mountains of Madness, or George
Birch in In the Vault.
Fellowship
As you learned while fighting in the Great War, there is no greater virtue than comradeship.
If your friends are in danger, you must follow them, boldly and heartily.
Especially appropriate for: Doctor, Hobo, Military, Pilot.
Fraternity
Man is born to serve his fellow man, an effort best carried out through collective action. This
service sometimes draws one into danger, which is the price one pays for the advancement of
universal freedom. This truth remains constant no matter whether the threat comes from the
thuggish forces of fascism or capitalism, or malign entities beyond the standard dialectic. For what
are such entities as Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth, if not antihuman forces determined to keep our minds
ignorant and shackled? They will remain eternally in power, unless comrades from around the
world join together in global solidarity to put them down. Starting with you.
Especially appropriate for: Clergy, Hobo, Journalist, Nurse.
Friendship
When, on a memorable joint furlough, the learned young Creole had taken the wistful Boston dreamer to
Bayonne, in the south of France, and had shewn him certain terrible secrets in the nighted and immemorial crypts that
burrow beneath that brooding, aeon-weighted city, the friendship was forever sealed.
- Through the Gates of the Silver Key
You were blessed with someone whom you hold as dear as family, and if he thinks a job is
worth doing, you will help. This person may be a member of your organisation, but loyalty and
shared sacrifice make you more than a mere Follower: he has your back as well. If he is not
present, perhaps you’ve promised to fulfill his dying wish, or taken up his mantle after his
disappearance. It is certainly appropriate for two members of a group to share this drive; if
something happens to one of them, however, his fate should weigh heavily on the survivor.
Especially appropriate for: any occupation.
Examples: Daniel Upton and Edward Pickman Derby in The Thing on the Doorstep, the
narrator and St. John in The Hound.
Greed
But business is business, and to a robber whose soul is in his profession, there is a lure and a challenge about a
very old and very feeble man who has no account at the bank, and who pays for his few necessities at the village
store with spanish gold and silver minted two centuries ago.
– The Terrible Old Man
You know what’s wrong with poverty? Everything. You will do anything to stay out of the
gutter, especially including shoving someone else into it. It’s hard times, my friend, and they’re
only getting harder for the soft. If you can see a chance at the ready, you’d best grab it before
some other gutter rat snatches it away and leaves you on the pavement.
Especially appropriate for: Antiquarian, Archaeologist, Criminal, Dilettante, Hobo.
Examples: Ricci, Czanek, and Silva in The Terrible Old Man, and Obed Marsh in The Shadow
Over Innsmouth.
Guilt
In writing of these things in his diary, Blake expresses a curious kind of remorse, and talks of the duty of
burying the Shining Trapezohedron and of banishing what he had evoked by letting daylight into the hideous jutting
spire.
- The Haunter of the Dark
Because of you, mistakes were made, and people suffered. Is it common knowledge? Then
your enemies, or the public at large, may mock you openly, and even some comrades still worry
that history will repeat itself. Or perhaps your failure is a secret buried deep in your memory,
waiting for the right place to recur — or be exposed. Either way, you have to master your
incompetence, or seek the opportunity to right the wrong you caused.
Especially appropriate for: Doctor, Journalist, Military, Nurse, Police Detective.
Examples: Randolph Carter in his eponymous statement, George Birch in In the Vault. The
narrators of The Lurking Fear and At the Mountains of Madness both exhibit
signs of survivor’s guilt — which is likely a common malady among investigators.
Haunted
The ghost of Nezahualpilli told me that on the sacred mountain.
- The Electric Executioner
Though it’s your first time in these ruins, you swear you’ve seen them before. And a minute
later, you awoke with their clammy aura still lingering in your mind. Or maybe a phantasm has
beckoned you here in a fevered dream. How else can you explain why you know so much about
this place?
Especially appropriate for: Alienist, Antiquarian, Archaeologist, Parapsychologist.
Examples: The citizens of Binger, Oklahoma in The Mound, Walter Gilman in The Dreams in
the Witch-House.
Impeccable Breeding
You are not one to seek out danger. However, as an able-bodied fellow of unimpeachable family
connections, you understand that it is your duty to protect society, including your social inferiors,
when it is threatened. To shirk this would cast a shadow on the family name. There is no worse
failure than that.
Especially appropriate for: Antiquarian, Archaeologist, Clergy, Dilettante, Professor.
Leveraged
He began to mingle in the more ‘advanced’ college set despite his middle age, and was present at some extremely
wild doings — on one occasion paying heavy blackmail (which he borrowed of me) to keep his presence at a
certain affair from his father’s notice.
- The Thing on the Doorstep
Even something as mundane as the past can haunt a man. An unscrupulous witness saw you
commit a crime, or discovered you in a compromising situation. And the price for silence may
not be cheap or even payable in money at all. This is Guilt taken to one logical conclusion, and
— depending on your temperament and the particulars — just as dangerous to the extorter as it
is to the extorted.
Especially appropriate for: any occupation.
Mentor
So as I drove the crowd away I told him he must come home with me and be my teacher and leader in unfathomed
mysteries, and he assented without speaking a word.
- Hypnos
You are the protégé of someone higher up in your organisation, and if he requires aid, you’re
one of the first to volunteer. Unlike the Follower drive, such an arrangement tends to benefit
both persons — the mentor imparts wisdom or furthers his legacy while you fill out your resumé
or climb the agency ranks. Some mentors find you through family or social ties, while others act
out of altruism or the desire to groom a successor. The mentor should be a prominently
recurring NPC, but need not be the leader of every expedition (unless the Keeper thinks his
death might be a significant campaign event). Of course, if his motivations are ever revealed to
be at cross purposes to the group, you will have an interesting decision to make.
Especially appropriate for: Artist, Criminal, Journalist, Military, Nurse, Scientist.
Examples: Rice and Morgan in The Dunwich Horror, the associate students in At the
Mountains of Madness.
Power
The Mythos is the greatest source of power you know. Surely these rituals, these monsters, can
be harnessed for your own ends? Where others have failed, you will succeed, and use this
immense power to attain unimaginable authority.
Especially appropriate for: Criminal, Military, Professor, Scientist.
Protection
Your only interest in danger, of the occult or any other variety, is in keeping one or more
loved ones out of it. A sensible person wouldn’t be drawn to trouble, but, sadly, you are driven by
another overriding reason to keep a less-than-sensible person out of harm’s way. This person is
either another player’s character, or an NPC you have to keep rescuing.
Specify that reason, which might be as simple and pure as love, or as ambiguous as the
avaricious desire to keep your meal ticket safe, sound, and productive. Note it in parentheses on
your character sheet, after listing Protection as your drive. For example: Protection (Love) or
Protection (Avarice).
Especially appropriate for: any occupation.
Remorse
You made a terrible mistake once — perhaps more than once — foolishly toying with forces
too immense to comprehend. Only when it was too late did you realise the extent of the
darkness you called into the world. As the one responsible for it, you must now fight that
darkness, hoping against hope than you may one day reverse it. And to do that, you must
understand it, and to understand it, you must continue to traffick in the nightmare world…
Though aware of the paradox, you can only pray that what you do to earn your redemption does
not instead destroy all hope of it.
Especially appropriate for: Clergy, Parapsychologist, Professor, Scientist.
Rivalry
West, young despite his marvellous scientific acquirements, had scant patience with good Dr. Halsey and his
erudite colleagues; and nursed an increasing resentment, coupled with a desire to prove his theories to these obtuse
worthies in some striking and dramatic fashion.
- Herbert West — Reanimator
You tend to define success in comparison with someone in a position similar to your own.
This may be the result of common circumstances and shared experiences, a long history
stretching back to the old neighbourhood, or a recent reward that could have been yours.
Rivalry differs from Revenge in that your competitor hasn’t harmed you directly, unless you
count receiving accolades for things you do regularly with humble stoicism. In fact, the other
may be a trusted companion (though a poor Source of Stability) and frequent NPC. You keep an
eye open for chances to shine when he can’t — and if he dies trying to keep up, you can always
switch to Guilt.
Especially appropriate for: Artist, Author, Journalist, Professor, Scientist.
Examples: Herbert West in Herbert West — Reanimator.
Vow
Ten minutes later our stunned group took an oath of secrecy which only such guarded documents as this
manuscript will ever modify.
- Out of the Aeons
You have made a promise which you will do anything in your power to fulfill. A vow is more
general than Revenge or other drives where the deed itself is important. This is about keeping
one’s word — a question of honour more than Duty. It doesn’t matter whether you whispered it
to a dying comrade or proclaimed it to the leaders of your community.
Especially appropriate for: any occupation.
Examples: The museum staff in Out of the Aeons, the raiders in The Case of Charles Dexter
Ward.